Split Personality
by Under0The0Sea
Summary: Hermes' relationship with a mortal and how the mortal deals with Hermes' split personality between his Roman self - Mercury - and his Greek self. Slight spoilers for The Lost Hero.
1. Chapter I

**POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THE LOST HERO **- please do not read on if you haven't read The Lost Hero yet.

**DISCLAIMER**: I am sadly not Rick Riordan.

There will be some mild language in this but I think that's the only thing you should be aware of. If anything else comes up I'll let you know.

_As much as I should not be starting another story with my current lack of time situation, I couldn't resist this little plot bunny, (well I say little…) I was very interested by the idea that the gods have the Greek version of themselves and the Roman version of themselves and can in effect switch between those two personalities. This sparked off this little fic (which I really hope you will enjoy). _

_This is set just after The Lost Hero. Zeus had reopened Olympus although he has banned any contact with demi-gods or mortals. _

I skulked along the edges of the crowd, cursing my older brother. Apollo had gotten it into his head that he wanted to go to some music event at some college in Florida. This would have been fine but for reasons best known to himself he had decided that it was absolutely critical that I went with him. He told me that all I had been doing recently was sulking and that it would be good for me to get out. I denied this categorically - _me_, sulking? - and would have refused to go however he once again brought up the stupid cattle incident of my youth. After spending a full hour reminding me of how _forgiving _he had been I sullenly acquiesced, if only to shut him up.

So here I was, prowling morosely along the edges of the crowd wishing that the damn party would just be over with so I could go back to Olympus and sulk. I briefly contemplated starting a small fire so as to bring the party to an abrupt and welcome end. As I thought about the many merits of this idea Apollo came dancing over a ridiculously big grin on his face.

"Oh lighten up." he snapped when he saw my expression, "You know you're a lot more fun as Hermes." I sniffed disdainfully,

"Why don't you shout that a bit louder?" I replied crossly, "You may want to be sectioned but I don't."

"Relax! Most people here wouldn't understand the references and those who do are probably to drunk to think much of it." I shrugged. He was probably right but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that.

"Look we're not leaving until you've stopped sulking, so you may as well start enjoying yourself. So switch from Mercury to Hermes and cheer the hades up." I couldn't even be bothered to think up an even half-decent response and just stalked off. I looked back to see Apollo dancing with some anorexic blonde girl who was wearing too much make-up. I thought about just leaving - the pounding music was beginning to give me a headache - however I realised that I should probably stick around to make sure Apollo didn't do anything stupid such as shouting out the next weeks lottery numbers or telling people their destiny was to become a trash collector.

I sighed heavily, slumped against the wall and wondered exactly how serious Apollo had been about not leaving until I had fun. I toyed briefly with the idea of grabbing a drink and obeying Apollo's command to enjoy myself. The idea really didn't have much appeal. Nothing had had much appeal for a long time now.

I knew the other Olympians were getting fed up with me. They pointed out (rather viciously I thought) that sulking about my son's death wasn't exactly going to change anything and that he _did _die a hero. But for some reason the thought that he had died a hero didn't exactly cheer me up. He had still died. And he had died thinking I didn't care. I sighed again, letting myself sink lower into my self-loathing and misery. I have had many sons and daughters over the years who have despised me, yet none of them had gone to the extremes of joining forces with the titans to try and get back at me. None of them had hated me that much.

Luke had been my favourite. It's always dangerous to have favourites and this time was no exception. I wondered if he had known I would have changed his destiny in an instant if I could, would have done anything to make his path easier. I thought about the expression of intense hate in his eyes and surmised that no, he probably hadn't. A familiar knot began to twist in my stomach. I slid down the wall and sat on the floor, my arms resting on my knees and my head on my arms.

It hadn't been so bad immediately after Luke's death. I had been busy and so was able to brush my thoughts and feelings aside, filing them away with the vague promise to myself that I'd deal with them later. 'Later' came a little too quickly for my liking. Father dearest decided to shut down Olympus and I was left with a lot of time on my hands. At first the other Olympians thought I was sulking because was bored. And I was bored - but boredom was incredibly low down on my worries list. Since I had nothing to do, nothing with which to occupy my mind the guilt and the pain that Luke's death brought about was able to worm itself into my conscious mind. And I wasn't prepared for how much it _hurt_.

Before I could fall any lower into the pit of misery I had come to be all too familiar with I was knocked (literally) out of it by a red headed girl who flounced past, almost tripping over me. She yelled 'sorry' over her shoulder but she didn't look very sorry. There was something about her expression that interested me - it was an expression that I recognised, an expression that I myself had - on occasion, of course - worn. She was up to something. Without really thinking I got up and followed her.

_I was interested to find out, when I was researching the personalities of the Greek gods' Roman counterparts, that my one of favourite gods Hermes was not the god of thieves in Roman Mythology but simply the god of messengers. I imagine Mercury as being much more serious (and - in my opinion - much more dull) than Hermes. This is why Apollo tells Mercury to switch to Hermes when he is trying to encourage Mercury/Hermes to have some fun. _

_Thank you so much for reading and I would really appreciate it if you could review to tell me if you liked it or if there's anything I could improve on. _


	2. Chapter II

_Hello, here's part two. _

The girl walked casually across the campus, exchanging quick greetings with some of the staggering, lurching students who were trying to find their way back to their rooms. I began to think that maybe I had been wrong - something that I couldn't recall happening to me before, but in my current state who knew? - that she was simply going home. Quite suddenly the girl darted from the beaten track, so to speak, and raced across the grass towards a distant block of what I assumed were classrooms or offices. I followed.

She crouched down in front of one of the windows and got a torch out of her pocket. I kept a few yards from her, pressed against the wall, letting myself melt into the shadows. It was dark here; no light came from the windows and the lights that illuminated the path were too far away to shed any light on myself or the girl. I watched the girl with much interest as she struggled with the window, trying to open it.

With no idea of what I was doing or why, I walked softly over to the girl and swiftly opened the window. She leant back onto her heels and in the flickering light of her torch I could see her face was full of suspicion.

"Thanks." she said slowly her tone full of distrust. Her accent surprised me. It was English, I placed it as coming from somewhere in mid Kent. We regarded each other for a minute. She seemed to be waiting for something and I was at a complete loss of what to do. I had no idea why I was helping this girl. It would probably be best if I made a swift exit, but my curiosity was piqued and I wanted to know what she was doing. So I stood there, feeling slightly stupid, as I waited for her next move.

"You can go know." she informed me as though she was talking to a dumb child. I didn't move. She shook her head, muttered something unintelligible to herself and hoisted herself up onto the window sill and jumped down into the dark room.

I debated for a full second about whether or not I should follow her - I was probably freaking her out and there was probably something morally wrong about it (the following her not the breaking in. I knew from centuries of experience that breaking in was wrong. Of course it had never bothered me before and I can't say it was weighing very heavily on my conscience now.)

I jumped up onto the window sill; after all I had never let the boundaries of right and wrong stop me from doing anything before and I didn't see why I should start paying attention to them now. I was quite proud of myself though. I had seriously debated what I was doing for a full second which was much longer than I had ever debated anything in my life. Perhaps I was getting sentimental in my old age. The red headed girl jumped violently as I landed lightly on the ground next to her. I waited for a flicker of guilt. None came; maybe not so sentimental then.

She yanked the curtains shut forcefully and strode over to turn on the lights. When they came on she turned to glare at me as I stood watching her, leaning back against wall; the very picture of nonchalance. The girl rolled her eyes and crossed over to the desk and, deliberately not sparing me another glance, she began to riffle through the papers on it, quickly but methodically. She was looking for something then.

I let my gaze wander around the room. We appeared to be in an office. There was the large cluttered oak desk that the girl was pillaging, behind which was a large, over stuffed green chair. Three mismatched chairs, which were smaller but also heavily stuffed, stood in front of the desk and the walls were lined with bookcases full of dreary looking books of the sort Athena would love. So this was more likely than not the office of a professor. One of the girls professors perhaps? Maybe she was searching for something to bribe him with so that she could get a top grade in one of her assessments.

It occurred to me as I watching the girl that I could have just turned invisible so that she didn't realise I was watching her. Although that would mean that I couldn't monitor her reaction to me which was certainly entertaining so perhaps I had chosen the right way after all. A slight nagging thought somewhere towards the back of my her told me that I didn't have to follow her at all but I dismissed it quickly.

The girl suddenly turned towards me frustration on her face.

"What are you doing?" she asked furiously. I stared back innocently at her,

"I could be asking you the same question." I pointed out. She clenched her jaw and seriously looked as though she was debating whether or not to hit me when we heard the distinctive sound of footsteps. We both froze, like characters in a bad movie. The girl looked worried, she was glancing around the room for somewhere to escape or hide.

As the footsteps came closer the girl darted over and switched off the lights. I yanked her over to the door I had seen when we had entered and shoved the girl in, presuming it led to a cupboard. I walked in after her and shut the door behind me. The tiny room was pitch black but it was, thankfully, a cupboard and not the door to a meeting room full of professors. That may have been quite hard to explain.

There wasn't much room in the cupboard and I could feel the girl pressed against me. Her heart was pounding but her breathing was fairly steady. I could feel waves of anger radiating from her and I became very glad that it was too dark to see her expression and even more glad that there wasn't room for her to reach up and hit me. For some reason she seemed to blame this slight mishap on me which I thought was a little unfair. A thin strip of light that crept in from under the cupboard door and the sound of a door shutting told us that someone was in the office.

The girl shifted slightly, she seemed tense and was holding her breath. I then realised that I too was holding my breath too which was ridiculously melodramatic of me. I exhaled slowly and reflected on the fact that this would be the exact point in the movies where my phone would go off. Just as I was thinking how thankful I was that _my _life wasn't dictated by an overpaid script writer with a flair for clichéd drama, my phone began to vibrate loudly.

_Haha clichéd cliff-hanger I know. I couldn't resist. __J_

_Thank you so much for reading and I would really appreciate it if you could review to tell me if you liked it or if there's anything I could improve on. _


	3. Chapter III

_Here's part 3..._

Warning: Slight adult themes. Nothing explicit; there is just very slight reference but I thought I better warn everybody.

_Just as I was thinking how thankful I was that my life wasn't dictated by an overpaid script writer with a flair for clichéd drama, my phone began to vibrate loudly. _

I took a second to appreciate the irony. Then I realised should probably do something. I willed the professor's (or whoever he was) phone to ring which masked the noise mine was making. I couldn't move to switch off my phone but I mentally told it to shut up and it did. _Ah, the benefits of being the god of messengers, _I thought to myself. _And thieves _a voice in my head pointed out and I smirked.

"That was lucky." the girl hissed disbelievingly and disapprovingly. As the professor was talking very loudly on his phone she had obviously decided it was safe to speak.

"Yes." I agreed in a self-satisfied and unnecessarily cheerful voice "It was wasn't it." although I couldn't see her I knew instinctively that she was glaring ferociously at me.

"Who the hell are you?" she asked furiously, although she did remember to keep her voice to a whisper, "And why were you following me?"

"I'm not following you." I faltered, slightly surprised by her direct manner. I didn't need to see the girl to know that she didn't believe me. I didn't blame her; it wasn't exactly the most convincing excuse I've ever come up with.

"I see." she hissed sarcastically (sarcasm sounds so very right in an English accent - it's something I've noticed many times before. Very likely something to do with the general English grumpiness) Snatches of the professor's conversation began to present themselves to me and they were so very interesting that I bean to listen forgetting entirely about the girl until she stabbed me with her elbow - no mean feat in the cramped cupboard.

"What?" I hissed.

"I _said _you could at least tell me your name."

"H-arry." I stuttered remembering at the last second that I was supposed to lie. This was extremely careless of me and I have no doubt that anyone hearing it would doubt that I was the God of Thieves. In fairness to me I was still distracted by the telephone conversation which, with the aid of my godly powers, I was listening to both sides of. The professors wife - I assume it was his wife, she sounded far too old and grumpy to be a mistress - was really quite a character; jealous, paranoid and insanely manipulative she reminded me a lot of Hera, my dear step-mother.

"Harry." repeated the girl doubtfully. "I suppose I should tell you my name considering we're spending all this lovely time together." she sounded disdainful and she tried to wriggle away from me but there wasn't enough room.

"Oh come on!" and had she been anything other than an insignificant mortal my ego would have been bruised, "I'm not that bad"

"Of course not. As far as stalkers go you've been delightful." there was that English sarcasm again. I laughed softly.

"What are you doing anyway?" I asked as a way to kill time. The professor didn't sound like he would be wrapping up his conversation anytime soon and the conversation between him and his wife had become dull - he was trying to persuade his wife that he did love her.

The girl shifted and I thought that she wasn't going to answer me.

"The professor likes young girlfriends. His wife doesn't know anything about it nor do any of the other staff and many of the students here. He came onto my best friend a few weeks ago offering her good grades in return and she turned him down. She told me but as nothing further happened we thought nothing of it other than that he was a creep.

A couple of days ago she disappeared. No word to anyone, she just vanished. I thought that he might have something to do with it."

"And instead of alerting the authorities you decided that breaking and entering sounded much more dangerous and would therefore elicit a far greater thrill."

"You think I'm a thrill seeker?" the girl asked disbelievingly, "You think _I'm _a thrill seeker?" she repeated changing the emphasis slightly.

"What are you talking about?" I asked impatiently.

"You followed me, picked the lock on the window for me and are now hiding in a cupboard with me." she hissed, "What part of that suggests you're _not _a thrill seeker? I mean, why else would you bother?" she paused.

"Or are you just wildly in love with me and are some kind of psychotic love-sick stalker?" she asked mischievously. I rolled my eyes although it was a wasted gesture as she couldn't see it.

"Don't be ridiculous." I snapped.

"I'm not that bad." the girl mocked. "I hope the professor winds up his conversation soon." the girl said shifting her position once again, "this is starting to get uncomfortable."

"Only starting to get uncomfortable?" I asked innocently, the girl elbowed me again - she had very sharp elbows. "you're quite lucky I'm not a psychotic love-sick stalker" I continued dryly.

"I'm still not convinced you're not." We fell into silence and just a few minutes later we heard the professor say goodbye to his jealous wife. Another minute elapsed and then we heard footstep and the sound of a door shutting. We waited a few seconds and then I opened the door and we both tumbled out of the cupboard.

"He's left the lights on." the girl commented quietly. "He'll probably be back soon."

I nodded my agreement and as one we walked to the window. The girl turned with her hand on the curtains and looked at me contemplatively. I took the opportunity to examine her something I hadn't previously been bothered to do.

She was quite pretty I suppose. Now we were in normal light as opposed to the dim lights of the party her hair looked more of a gingery-gold than red. She had freckles and brown eyes. She was wearing an expression torn that was torn between distrust and amusement.

She suddenly smiled and shook her head in an amused fashion.

"My names Sarah-Jane." she said. She slipped through the curtains and then turned back. "Oh and you may want to close the window behind you." she said smirking at me through the small gap between the blue velvet drapes. She disappeared again. "And stay out of my life from now on." came her disembodied voice. I shook my head in disbelief and then slipped through the curtains myself, although I had less to worry about as I could hide myself from mortal eyes. I jumped lightly from the window sill to the ground and as Sarah-Jane had suggested gently shut the window.

I wandered slowly back to the party that had started these bizarre events off. I thought about how entertaining mortals were - I really should visit their world more often. And I didn't feel as guilty and miserable as I had been feeling which was in many ways good. It was also bad because it meant that Apollo was right - getting out of Olympus has cheered me up which was no doubt what he was aiming to do by dragging me to that stupid party. I hated it when my brother was right. It didn't happen very often which made it even more annoying when it did.

But in a way Apollo had also been wrong. It wasn't a party I needed to cheer me up. I twirled the expensive pen I had taken from the professor's desk between my fingers and a small part of me hoped that the girl - or Sarah-Jane as I suppose I should now be calling her - wouldn't get blamed for its absence. She had been very entertaining and a welcome distraction.

I entered the party to see that everything was exactly the same as I had left it. Apollo was in full arrogant musician mode complete with Ray Ban's and tight jeans. Apparently it had some kind of appeal though as he was surrounded by attractive hysterical girls who were fawning over him clearly under the delusion that he was in some famous band. I rolled my eyes at him and he excused himself with a flash of a smile aimed at the girls and came over to me,

"Where have you been?" he asked.

"Nowhere." I replied automatically and evasively.

"Good. That's much better. You're back to your annoying, devious, untrustworthy self."

"Can we just get the hades out of here?" I asked wearily.

"Of course little brother." he smiled and went to say goodbye to his fan club. I bristled slightly at being called 'little' brother when Apollo himself was currently posing as a nineteen year old and had the maturity of someone much younger than that. I was going to protest when I realised that I myself looked about twenty-one and that my self-destructive sulking had all the maturity of a seven year old so I decided I should probably let it slide.

"I guess we better get back." Apollo commented as appeared by my side, "Before dad realises we're here."

"Don't worry I'll make sure I tell him it's all your fault." I told him cheerfully.

"I think I liked you better when you were sulking." Apollo said darkly and I laughed.

_So there's the story of their first meeting. I will at some point write the story of their second meeting. _

_Thanks for reading and I hoped you liked the story._

_Reviews are greatly appreciated. _


	4. Chapter IV

I checked my phone for the twentieth time this morning. Olive was supposed to be texting me to tell me what was happening this afternoon. There was some street carnival festival thing going on and Olive had decided that we _absolutely had to go. _I wasn't so keen; the excuse that my friends were given was that I had too much work - the real reason was pure laziness. I could not be bothered to go all the way into town (okay so it was like a five minute walk, but still!) when I was perfectly happy in my room watching a film or listening to some music or wasting away my youth on tumblr or whatever.

But Olive had insisted and the others wanted to go and instead of being respected my wishes were completely ignored. Which brings me back to the beginning where I'm sitting in my room, bored out of my mind, waiting for Olive to text me. _There was a chance_, I thought, as I dug my make-up bag out of my handbag, _that she won't text me and I won't hav__e to go. _Olive was notoriously unreliable. I couldn't really condemn her for this as it was a character trait we shared but at least _I _never tried to organise anything.

After applying my make-up, Olive hadn't texted and I was still bored. With a sigh I opened up iTunes and selected my 80's play list - you can say what you like about the eighties and I'll probably agree but I can't deny that eighties music is practically guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. This time was no exception and, giggling crazily to myself, I got up and danced around in the limited space in my cramped room.

"Wake me up before you go go!" I sang, probably horribly out of tune. The doorbell rang and I danced towards the door, tripping over the corner of my bed on the way and stumbling into the door. This made me laugh, slightly maniacally, and I still was when I pulled open the door expecting to see my friend John, who had told me he might come over this morning.

When I saw who it actually was I froze. I think I may have said something like 'you have got to be kidding me'. I closed the door, took a deep breath and pulled it open again. He was still standing there, stock still and also looking like he was in complete shock.

"You really are stalking me." I choked out. It was him -that 'Harry' guy from the other night, the one who had followed me into Professor Greene's room. What the hell was he doing at my door? And why the hell had I answered the door when I was giggling like a maniac, which was totally not the right impression to give him.

Where did that thought come from? I demanded of myself. Okay so 'Harry' - I wasn't convinced that that was actually his name - was gorgeous with his dark hair and his slight tan and his big brown eyes. And with the converse, jeans and t-shirt combo he looked exactly like the sort of guy I would usually go for. But he was probably a psychopath. And he was staring at me in definite horror. So even if I did want to date a psycho his less than thrilled reaction when I came to the door suggested that he wouldn't want to date _me_.

"I'm not stalking you." he said hollowly. "I thought this was Leanne's room." Now that made sense. Leanne was popular (for some reason) pretty (in a fake kind of way) and a bit of a whore. I got countless guys turning up at my door looking for Leanne which made me think that Leanne directed them to my room on purpose to remind me of how much of looser I was and that I would never get a boyfriend etc etc which was really rather petty and immature. Didn't stop it getting to me though.

"You've got it backwards." I told him dully, "Leanne's in 103 not 301"

"Right" 'Harry' said awkwardly. There was an uncomfortable silence.

"I'll see ya then" he said, running a hand through his hair uneasily.

"See you." I replied and I closed the door. I leant back against the door and slid down it until I was sitting with my back pressed against the hard wood. Well that was one way to kill a good mood, I thought to myself. Leanne sent her latest lover to my door so frequently that I was beginning to get used to it but somehow this time it hurt more. Maybe because 'Harry' was _my _psycho stalker and it wasn't fair that Leanne should steal him from me.

Walking on Sunshine began which reminded me there was music playing and didn't seem very appropriate so I heaved myself onto my feet and walked over and slammed the lid of my laptop shut. I waited until the music cut off a couple of seconds later then walked over to collapse on my bed. My rather heavy fall onto the bed caused my make-up bag to fall off my bed and scatter the contents all over the floor. Ignoring it, I stared at the ceiling miserably contemplating how dull my life was and wondering what the legions of guys who showed up at my door asking for Leanne actually sure in her. I mean sure she was pretty and popular and was almost definitely a cheerleader in high school and had legs a mile long, but that wasn't all that mattered right?

I realised I should probably work on cheering myself up before I hit the in-desperate-need-of-some-Ben-and-Jerrys-and-a-entire-box-of-tissues stage. I mean I was okay. I have friends. People like me. I had hit a hundred followers on tumblr the other day so I must be doing something right. I was half considering giving my reflection a stern pep talk while I played eye of the tiger or some other song about being tough or true to yourself or whatever. It always seemed to work for movie characters. While I was weighing up the pros and cons of this idea (pros: it may just work, cons: yeah right, dream on, it's not going to work and you'll just feel really silly doing it) the doorbell rang.

My last experience with the door hadn't been all that great and I couldn't be bothered to get up and so I contemplated just leaving it - it couldn't be that important. Then the doorbell rang again and its normal neutral tone somehow managed to sound impatient. I groaned and sat up - albeit very slowly and reluctantly. The doorbell rang again and then I heard someone pounding on the door.

"Alright, alright." I muttered as I hurried towards the door, "I'm coming, I'm coming." I pulled open the door and was nearly knocked backwards as someone bounded past me into my tiny room.

"John!" I greeted the empty hallway sarcastically, "Why don't you come in?" I continued keeping the sarcasm in my voice although I couldn't help laughing a little when I turned around to find him sprawled on my desk chair, spinning himself slowly from side to side.

"Why thank you Sarah." John replied cheerily as though the sarcastic tone in my voice hadn't registered. I rolled my eyes and shut the door.

"So Olive told me to come and drag you away from 'tumbling'" he said without any further preamble. "I didn't know you'd taken up gymnastics." he teased. I rolled my eyes but laughed.

"I'm a very accomplished tumbler. I joined a travelling circus when I was eight and they taught me everything I needed to know."

"You joined a circus? That would certainly explain a lot." John replied, "Come on we better go before Olive comes up here and drags us out herself." He continued quickly leaving me with no time to reply to the circus comment. I groaned.

"Oh come on!" John exclaimed, "It will be stupid and cheesy but it will be fun. And who knows maybe you'll find some tall, dark stranger who will sweep you off your feet and waltz you off into the sunset." I laughed and grabbed a bag from the floor crossing my fingers that it was the one with my purse in.

"Yeah like _that's _going to happen." I said.

* * *

_Reviews would make my day._

_Thanks for reading_

_xxx_


	5. Chapter V

The street carnival was every bit as stupid and cheesy as John predicted although it was lacking somewhat in fun. I had told John this but he just laughed easily and pointed out that two out of three correct predictions wasn't bad. I shrugged at that and glared moodily (and maybe a tiny bit irrationally) at everyone and anyone who caught my eye.

I was on my own - Olive and co. had disappeared completely (I think they were trailing a group of good-looking boys from the year above) and I'd managed to lose John which was admittedly my own fault as it probably wouldn't have happened if I wasn't dragging my feet and sloping along as slowly as possible like a sulky teenager. So there I was standing on a street corner, jostled by passers-by to whom I was seemingly invisible.

It was stupidly hot (it should definitely not be this hot, not at this time of the year) and I began to feel a little faint and woozy. I leant back against the building to keep my balance. As the street began to swim in front of me - perhaps I should stop skipping breakfast - _it _appeared.

If I knew my classics - and after seven hellish years at a private school back in England where Greek Mythology was considered a vital part of the curriculum (yeah I don't know why either) I was fairly sure I did - then that was one of the Keres. Which was impossible. A Ker (was that the singular? - I couldn't remember) could not be walking down a perfectly normal American street.

What worried me though wasn't that the Ker (never mind whether that was correct or not the more important thing was that it was there in the middle of the street) was snarling, or that it's teeth were dripping with something thick and scarlet that looked alarmingly like blood or even that I swear that thing was looking right at me. No what really worried me was that this wasn't the first time something like this had happened.

Okay, I had to keep calm. It was probably all a hallucination and although this meant that I should probably check myself into a mental-health hospital at least it meant that the thing couldn't hurt me. But then, it looked so real. I struggled through the depths of my memory and managed to drag a few half-remembered facts about the Keres to the surface. They weren't pleasant. Demon spirits, ate/drank blood, were plentiful at battlefields, Greek gods could get them to sod off but not much else could. As I was lacking in a supply of Greek Gods who I could call up and get to come and help me I was a little stuck.

The thing gave me an awful smile. My heart began to stutter and jump around in my chest. I couldn't stop staring at it even as it took a menacing step towards me. It took another step towards me and I thought about running but I had seemed to have lost control of my legs. Then, all of a sudden, its head snapped to the side as though it had spotted something and, without warning or explanation, it vanished.

In considerable shock - nothing like that had ever happened before - I turned to look in the general direction that the Ker had been looking right before it disappeared. My legs turned to jelly; I could barely support my own weight and, judging by the derisive/pitying looks passers-by gave me, I think I must have groaned aloud in disbelief. Harry -a.k.a psychotic stalker - was staring at the spot where the Ker had vanished with a slight frown and a troubled expression. What the hell was going on with my life?

Hermes' Pov

I stared at the spot where the Ker had vanished. I couldn't understand why one of the Keres would be here. I felt Sarah-Jane's gaze on me and stumbled back, very ineloquently, into the crowd. In my haste I ending up falling back against someone, nearly knocking them to the ground. I was about to apologise -hey, no matter what my deranged step-mother thinks, I _can _be polite - when I heard Apollo warn me sharply to 'watch out' and I decided against apologising. Apologising to my older brother is something I do only by sword point.

I turned to face Apollo.

"Uh-oh!" he said in an annoying sing-song voice he knows I hate "you're wearing your serious expression"

"I just saw one of the Keres." I replied choosing not to comment on Apollo's statement.

"Here?" he questioned looking at me as though I'd gone mad.

"Of course here!" I snapped.

"Alright!" he protested, "It's not _my _fault it turned up" he glanced over to the place where it had vanished. "Well it's gone now so no harm done." he added cheerfully. I was about to lecture the stupid teenager on how strange it was that one of the Keres was here and how important this development was given Olympus' current situation and that it was likely to be highly significant etc etc when he caught hold of my arm and dragged me down the street.

"Stop worrying. Nothing bad is going to happen and if there was I would know about it."

"Oh yeah?" I replied moodily, "Well you failed to see that your sister would get kidnapped by a titan." Apollo cringed and I should have felt guilty. But I was in too much of a bad mood and too worried about what the Keres roaming around the streets meant for Olympus.

Which in turn, got me worrying about why my father was acting so strangely and the way my delightful step-mother had chosen to go against centauries of experience and had, for reasons only clear to individuals as twisted and psychotic as herself, brought together the two camps. It didn't take someone with Athena's wisdom to see that this would (to use the expression popular among mortals) all end in tears. Apollo waved a hand in front of my face.

"Are you even listening to me?" he asked furiously.

"No." I replied succinctly. Suddenly I saw a glint of ginger hair and I grabbed Apollo's arm and pulled him down a side street.

"What? What are you doing?" he protested. I stopped and leant back against the wall.

"Have you gone completely mad?" demanded Apollo. He checked his hair critically in a window and then straightened his t-shirt.

"Some mortal girl thinks I'm stalking her." I said vaguely by way of explanation.

"So you decide to _run _from her?" he said incredulously. "You should just blast her and then you won't have to keep darting down side streets. And you wouldn't have to drag me with you." he sniffed and ran a hand through his hair causing it to stand on end which made him frown. I chose not to respond to that frankly ridiculous statement.

"Vain." I muttered.

"What was that?" Apollo demanded.

"Nothing." I sighed. I watched as he played with his hair some more. "Are you ready to be seen in public yet?" I asked moodily. He gave me a sarcastic look and without a backward look he stormed back out into the main street. I walked after him slowly and as I turned out onto the sunlit street I walked straight into someone.

"Get out of my way." I snapped rudely. A pair of unimpressed brown eyes looked at me disdainfully.

"My pleasure _Harry_." was the sarcastic reply.

"Sarah-Jane." I greeted her awkwardly, wincing as I spoke. "Sorry, I-"

"Save it." she snapped and she would have walked away had Apollo not chosen the exact wrong moment to start to care about my existence and had come back to find out what was taking me so long. Her looked at her critically and obviously decided she was pretty enough to be worth bothering to acknowledge as he gave her a brilliant smile and stepped forward.

"Hello." he said smoothly, "Who are you?" Sarah-Jane looked at him as critically as he had looked at her and rose inconceivably in my esteem when she simply turned to me and asked with a raised eyebrow and a dismissive attitude,

"Friend of yours?"

"Brother actually." I sighed, currently regretting very much the fraternal bond between us. She raised the other eyebrow up to join the first.

"Nice of you to go round with your younger brother." she commented as though she though me incapable of niceties.

"I'm his older brother actually." Apollo said brightly, "so really it's nice of _me _to be going anywhere with _him_. Although right now I'm regretting it." he added looking sideways at me as I stared at the sky, wishing I was anywhere but here.

"Older brother?" she repeated incredulously as she stared at us.

"Oh yes. By several years." Apollo confirmed his voice full of an innocence that I knew was feigned. I winced again still staring determinedly at the sky.

"I see." she said giving us a wary look as though concerned about our mental health. Frankly I would be too, if I was in her position.

"Sarah-Jane!" I heard someone call. We all turned and saw a tall, skinny, brown-haired man of approximately her age waving at her from across the road. He was reasonably attractive and I watched with a small amount of displeasure as her face lit up when she saw him.

"Well," she said, turning her attention back to us, "This had been sufficiently awkward. I'm going to go now." with a last confused and judgemental glance at us, she turned and crossed the road to join her friend. I glared at her retreating back and glared harder at her friend. I turned and saw Apollo staring at me.

"What?"

"You like her don't you?" he asked.

"Don't be ridiculous." I said sharply, perhaps a little too defensively. "Is that why you were acting so childishly? Because you think I like her and decided to embarrass me?"

"I was telling the truth!" Apollo protested his voice full of that fake innocence again.

"You know that mortals have a hard enough time believing we're related without being told that you're older than me!" Apollo and I look nothing alike. For those of you who haven't seen us I suppose a short description might be useful.

We can change how old we look of course but Apollo usually hovers somewhere around nineteen whereas I usually appear to be somewhere in my mid-twenties. I have dark hair which curls; Apollo's hair is straight and blonde. He has blue eyes, I have brown. My skin is more tanned than his. I could go on with the comparison's but they bore me.

Apollo was giving me a disbelieving look.

"Just leave it, will you." I said sulkily. "Even if I did like her, and I don't, then we have bigger problems to worry about. I think we should go and tell father about the Ker."

"Fine." said Apollo not bothering to wipe the disbelieving look from his face. "but let's stay here for a bit first. There was this really great girl I met at that part a few weeks ago who said she was going to be here."

* * *

_Thanks for reading_

_xxx_


	6. Chapter VI

28th November

Mercury

I walked through the marble halls of Olympus automatically, without much thought to where I was going, trusting myself to get there anyway. I could have transported myself directly to the _throne room _(1) but today I wanted to walk. Walking allowed me time to think.

So much had happened over the past few months. Months are normally insignificant - when you are old enough that you have watched civilisations rise and fall, and been instrumental in the fall of some of them, months seem like mere seconds. However looking back over the last few months they almost felt like another eternity.

First there was the boredom and then the pain of losing Luke - pain that I hadn't yet dealt with and I made a mental note to attempt to relieve it as soon as the meeting was over - then there was that girl (Sarah-Jane) and then the Keres' appearance in the mortal world. I could not help noticing that all the strange things that had happened to me coincided perfectly with the appearance of the girl in my life.

What's more I was beginning to get the most unsettling sense of déjà vu. The girl's movements, her gestures, they were starting to become disturbingly familiar. I was sure I had seen her before, although I could not pinpoint where. The 17th Century perhaps or maybe as early as our rule over Rome. But as the girl was certainly no more than twenty one, this surely couldn't be. As a rule, us immortal beings are very aware of other immortal beings; other immortals are, after all, just potential threats. If she was immortal I would know. So I couldn't recognise her. It wasn't possible.

What worried me was that she kept appearing in my life. Mortals, unless being specifically courted by immortals, do not appear in our lives more than once. Twice is a coincidence that has approximately the same odds as a mortal winning the lottery twice in a row. They almost certainly never remember us if they do happen to meet us and definitely would never strike a conversation with us. Why then did she appear everywhere I went?

Yesterday, for example, and I was taking a walk through New York enjoying the fact that father had finally relaxed his no-leaving-Olympus-unless-it's-an-emergency-and-I've-approved-it-and-even-then-you-must-not-have-any-contact-with-anyone-or-anything rules. For no reason at all I entered one of those silly fashion shops that sell clothes that are identical to clothes in other shops for ten times the price (although I do like the company that named their very fashionable and stylish clothing items after me) and there she was.

Holding a emerald green scarf in both hands she was talking animatedly to a shop assistant. She laughed suddenly and I got an unwelcome flash of déjà vu. The feeling that I'd seen her in that same position, using those same mannerisms and gestures annoyed me; no mortal should have a hold over me, even a hold as small as recognising someone from an unknown time or place in the distant (or perhaps not so distant) past. I left the shop without looking back. The last meeting had been awkward enough and I had no desire to repeat that experience. Besides she seemed to be under the ridiculous impression that I was stalking her (more likely the other way around) and so I did not want to see her again so far from our original meeting place.

Back in the present and I was nearly at the throne room. I entered and walked quickly to my throne, refusing to catch anyone's eye or allowing myself to be caught up in anyone's conversations. For once there didn't seem to be any arguments; yet, anyway. Zeus was not yet present although Hades had shown up. He had constructed a temporary throne for himself, identical to the one in the throne room of the underworld, and was glancing around the room with a look of disdain and an air of arrogance.

Unwilling to engage anyone in conversation or be engaged in conversation myself, I took out my phone and began scrolling through my messages. The task was so automatic that most of them I replied too or deleted as appropriate without even thinking. And then I came to one that caught my attention. I scanned through it frowning a I did. I got to the bottom, sighed wearily and read through it again.

The message was from Aeolus and was long, irate and worrying. He was furious, it seemed, that one of Zeus' brats (his words not mine), two other demigods and a satyr should 'waltz' into his palace under the pretence of sorting out his contract and then leave taking one of his best assistants with them. Although I sure this was all very distressing it didn't really concern me. No what worried me were the not-too veiled threats about Aeolus changing his alliances unless Zeus changed his contract.

This was a problem we could do without. Aeolus was insane and most of the time an annoyance however in our current situation where we were potentially fighting the very earth it would not be good to have to add the winds to our list of enemies. And therefore we could not afford to upset Aeolus.

A crash of thunder that surprised no-one (after approximately three millennia we had all grown used to Zeus' theatrics) announced father's arrival. He sat in his throne looking grave and the room fell silent instantly (just as we had grown used to his theatrics we had learnt not to do anything to upset him when he looked as serious as he did now.)

I tried to pay attention to the meeting however after imparting the news of the keres (I had allowed Apollo to convince me to wait until the meeting to impart this news although it was against my better judgement) and Aeolus' discontentment (to put it mildly) and after listening to various new from the others (all bad - basically boiling down to: the giants are rising, there are more and more monsters around, we're probably going to have to rely on the demigods again) I found it more and more difficult to concentrate. The conversation was circling and, as usual, we weren't any closer to deciding anything. I found myself growing weary and disconnected.

Gods do not daydream. Not in the same way morals do. While part of my conscious (for no reason at all) swooped away from the throne room, another part of it stayed grounded in my throne in case anyone said anything important (unlikely) or asked me a question.

(Incidentally all at the same time, I was also watching with some bemusement as some mortals dug up a stretch of my road -as the god of travellers and travel all roads belong to me- for no discernable reason and another part of my conscious was very busy bailing two of my children out of jail, several other parts of my conscious were doing various other things)

It was with some surprise then that I suddenly found myself in an Indian market. Mortals daydream when they are bored, Gods _'_daydream' (for want of a better word) for different reasons - usually some part of their conscious alerting them to a potentially dangerous situation which they then investigate. In this case it was my memory alerting me to something.

God's memories are more impressive than you're mortal memories. We can send part of our conscious back to the scene (not back in time - it is more like constructing the scene again in its entirety around us with no detail wrong or amiss) and we can then explore this scene at our leisure. We can go places in the memory that in the past we never visited. Confused? That's because you're a mortal.

I found myself in a market place in India. I wondered what was special about this scene. It had barely left an impression on me the first time I was here - the market was very scenic/beautiful/aromatic and all that, but one Indian market really does begin to look like another after a while - so why the hades would my conscious decide I needed to see it again. And then I saw her. That blasted mortal girl who would not leave me alone. What the hades was she doing in my memories of India in 1875?

She was holding an emerald scarf in her hands, talking to the stall owner. Suddenly she laughed and I remembered the shop incident of the previous day. I snarled. Furious didn't even begin to describe my mood. The gods were facing one of the biggest crises of our lives and here was this mortal girl who was somehow managing to infiltrate my memories to add to my growing list of problems.

The girl said something else, put the scarf down with a smile and walked away. I followed. Her auburn hair glinted in the sun making it easy to follow her. As I trudged after the girl through the stifling market place I was seething. I was determined to find out what she would do next, where she would go. The girl suddenly turned off and darted down an alleyway. I quickened my pace and reached where the girl had turned off.

"What did Aeolus want again?" asked Dionysus. I was back in the throne room instantly and my conscious disappeared from the memory. Which annoyed me to no end. Because although I didn't know why, I was sure that the reason for the girl appearing in my memories was just around the corner and down the alley.

* * *

Thanks for reading

xxx


	7. Chapter VII

Hermes

5.45 am

I woke and sat upright instantly, my mind in perfect clarity as I tensed, an instinctive defence mechanism, as I waited for an attack. Then I saw Apollo. No attack was coming then, unless it was me attacking Apollo. I must have done something to upset him recently and he must have a death wish. Why else would he callously wake me up?

"What are you playing at?" I demanded furiously. To my surprise Apollo looked uncomfortable, possibly because I was milliseconds away from hurting him. Although that had never bothered him before; we fought (physically anyway) rarely but when we did he never exactly held back and couldn't care less about hurting me every bit as much as I hurt him.

"I thought you'd want to be woken."

"And what the Hades gave you that idea?" I shrieked sounding much too like a harpy but it was forgivable as I'd just been woken up. I seldom sleep but when I do I don't appreciate being woken up, especially for no reason. Had Olympus been under attack or some other dire situation it might have been another story. Might have been.

"You were screaming." muttered Apollo, fiddling awkwardly with the bow he had in his hand - a very un-Apollo mannerism.

"Screaming?" I asked thrown slightly off the furious track I'd been securely on.

"Yeah, um, you were screaming 'Luke'" I slumped back down, hitting the pillows heavily.

"Are you okay?" he asked, clearly picking up on my not-so-subtle reaction.

"I'm fine." I said wearily closing my eyes and wishing that I was still asleep and that I could wake up again and have a better start to the day.

"I'm sorr-"

"I said I'm fine." I snapped, interrupting him. I didn't want to talk about it. Not now, not ever if I could help it.

"Do you want-"

"I want you to leave." I snapped.

"Okay but-"

"Just get out." he dematerialised instantly but it wasn't quick enough for me to miss the worry and pity in his eyes. _Great_. I didn't want to be pitied or worried about I just wanted to be left alone.

I couldn't remember the dream at all. I never would have known about it had Apollo not woken me up. I cursed Apollo silently. Why couldn't he just have left me alone? He always had to interfere, always managed to make everything worse.

I closed my eyes, as black depression began to regain its icy numbing grip on my mind. Why? Why had the fates chosen my son? Why Luke? Why me?

* * *

6:15am

I decided to go for a walk to clear my head. There was always a chance the fresh air might blow away all my worries and cares or something. Although I could have chosen anywhere in the world something kept me in New York, perhaps some kind of sentimental feeling towards the city that was currently home.

To my surprise the walk seemed to be working somewhat. I didn't feel like bursting into song about how all my troubles had melted away and how everything was coming up roses but I did feel a little more in control, a little calmer. Of course the way things had been going lately I wasn't expecting this calm to last but I certainly didn't expect it to shatter so quickly.

It was her again. She was sitting on the steps staring down the street as though waiting for someone, chin in hand and a blank expression that was strange in that it was almost fierce as though she was struggling very hard to maintain her indifference.

This was getting ridiculous. Would we carry on this way until she died? It seemed entirely possible at this rate. I continued towards her anyway thinking a little half-heartedly that I should probably ask her what the Hades she was doing in New York at 6:15 in the morning.

I apparently entered her field of vision (I always forget mortals have such poor eyesight) as she suddenly stood slowly never taking her eyes off me. Her response I have to admit was a little unexpected and I stopped watching to see what she would do next. She held my gaze for a few seconds and then whipped around sharply and walked away. She didn't turn back or stop, just kept walking purposefully back down the street away from me.

I have to admit I was completely thrown. Not only had we met _again_, but this time it actually seemed like she was waiting for me. Which was quite frankly ridiculous. No mortal should be able to track an immortal. It was impossible.

I dematerialised and materialised on the steps in the approximate position she had been sitting. I sat down and stared down the street. Perhaps she hadn't actually been waiting for me. Perhaps she had walked away because she was convinced I was stalking her and she didn't want to have to interact with me.

But really this whole situation was getting ridiculous. Not only did I have to contend with the Olympus situation, Hera taking leave of her senses, Gaia awakening and now the added drama of Aeolus's hissy fit but I now had a mortal who seemed to be everywhere I went. Honestly it was enough to make me want to –

My internal complaints were interrupted by a surge of some kind of power, somewhere fairly close by. I got up and walked slowly in the direction of the surge following a residual trace of the power. I ended up just inside a car park. I treated the car park to a cursory glance around for anything that might have caused the power surge but, predictably, found nothing. By now thoroughly irritated I decided this was a good time to go yell at Apollo about everything that had happened because this morning was definitely all his fault.

* * *

8.03 am

It ended up being a couple of hours before I had the time to find Apollo (I ended up having to complete a number of boring tasks that my dear father dumped on me) and in that time I'd managed to calm down a little and didn't feel like killing the person who woke me up because them waking me up was clearly the reason my day was already going so wrong. But I still wanted to talk to him about Sarah-Jane, perhaps he could see something in the future that would explain why she kept gracing me with her presence. And besides even if I didn't kill him for waking me up I still had to yell at him and/or seriously maim him to make sure he never woke me again. Perhaps I was being ungrateful (he had woken me from a nightmare after all) but I have to say I didn't particularly care.

Apparently Apollo was meeting some girl he met a couple of weeks ago in a coffee shop near Sarah-Jane's university which seemed like tempting the fates but I figured since Sarah-Jane was in New York there was not a chance of me meeting her. Eight in the morning seemed like an odd time to be meeting someone but I've given up trying to understand Apollo. All this had come from Ares who told me that he was only telling me where Apollo was because I looked like I was about I was about to murder Apollo. I'd questioned at the time where Ares had got this information from and he assured me that Apollo had announced his intentions before hoping that I "gutted the punk"

Apollo wasn't at the coffee shop so I guess we'll never know whether I would have gutted him or not. I can't say I was too surprised, for someone whose duties involved making sure the sun rose, Apollo had lately been moody as hades in the mornings. It was like he was going through his teens again (which I had luckily skipped out on the first time as I was yet to be born, his current adolescent behaviour was making me very glad I'd missed it the first time, and I imagined I was not the only one he was starting to annoy if Ares wish for me to gut him was anything to go by. Then again you can never tell with Ares. He just about wats everyone to gut everyone else all the time). Anyway the chances of him wanting to interact with anyone at this hour did seem extremely low. In fact if I actually believed Ares had enough intelligence to pull something as _elaborate_ as this off I would have said he was making it up just to make me go half way across the country.

Seeing as I had come all this way I figured I may as well get coffee. I ordered and waited a ridiculously long time for them to make the drink. I'd finally received it and I had to admit it was worth the wait, just the smell of the coffee almost cheered me up. And then I turned round.

"You have got to be joking." I said echoing her sentiments from one of our previous meeting.

"Oh for the love of-" she said as she saw me. Her brown eyes widened comically as she stared at me. I couldn't believe it. What was she doing here? She was in New York less than two hours ago. There is no way she could have got here so fast. Less than two hours ago she's been wearing a cream coat, red nail polish, her hair was down and she was in _New York_. Now her hair was pulled up scrappily, she was wearing a baggy grey t-shirt, black leggings and her nails were chipped and purple. And she was _here_.

"Too hot for a coat now?" I asked sarkily, only just managing to stop myself from blurting out _How the hades did you get here from New York so quickly?!_

"What are you talking about?" she demanded, "It's too early for me to be dealing with any of your crap today." _Ouch_, if I cared at all about her or her opinion that much have hurt. Still she had a point, it _was_ too early to be dealing with her, with her abilities to jump around the country in no time at all and her knack of knowing exactly where I'll be so she can just pop up just to ruin –

"You know it's really not polite to ignore your stalk victim." She said narrowing her eyes. I stared at her, meeting her gaze. I had to admit this wasn't what I was expecting and I wasn't just thinking about her super speed or whatever it was that got her here so fast. She had always seemed, not pleased to see me but at least she generally kept her hatred down to a sarky disinterested minimum. Now she was openly hostile, which made me think maybe I wasn't her only problem. Not that I cared what was going on in her life.

"Sarah?" one of the baristas calls. She breaks eye contact with me to turn to acknowledge the barista.

"And another thing-" she said as she went to collect her drink. Her shoulders were slumped and she looked miserable.

"Alright!" I said irritably, "Enough." I continued, a little more calmly holding up my hands in a surrending gesture as best as I could with a hot cup of coffee in one hand. "I'm sorry."

"What did you say?" she asked in complete disbelief. To be honest I was pretty taken aback too. What was I apologising for? Although now that I'd started I may as well continue I suppose. I mean maybe this would break the chain or something and she'd be out of my life for good. Which would be slightly odd come to think about it. But good. That would definitely be a good thing. I put the coffee down on a table to buy some time. She rolled her brown eyes but put her cup down on the table next to mine, slid into the chair and stared up at me expectantly. I sighed and sat down opposite her.

"I'm sorry." I said again. We both knew she'd heard me the first time but if I was going to do this I may as well do it nicely.

"You're apologising?" she asked hesitantly, her face the pictorial representation of complete confusion. She clasped her hands together, only to unclasp them a second later, intertwining and untwining her fingers like she was nervous. It was odd but for some reason she looked almost vulnerable . And her nails really were in bad condition, it looked like she'd been biting them. Which wouldn't matter. And I definitely wasn't curious to know what was wrong.

"Yes. And I mean it too, I am genuinely sorry that we keep meeting but I assure you that it is merely a coincidence. I'm sorry if I've ever upset you and I'm sorry that I've acted kinda insane around you and I can understand why you might think that I've lost my mind but I assure you I haven't and if some of the things I've said have seemed -"

As I was talking she cocked her head to the side as though considering something and as I continued with my sincere(ish) apology she leaned forward so she wasn't slumped back in her seat anymore. I took it as a sign that she was listening despite the slightly glazed look in her eyes and continued.

"-odd then it's probably best if you just ignored them. I'm not on drugs or anything but-" I stopped abruptly, was _forced _to stop abruptly by Sarah-Jane's lips attaching themselves to mine. She was kissing me!

* * *

_Please review. I've broken my toe and reviews would make it feel better (haha shameless guilt trip) but seriously I didn't used to think breaking a toe would hurt that much but it frickin kills._

_Thanks for reading._

xxx


	8. Chapter VIII

(nb. Lachesis is one of the Fates)

I didn't react. I couldn't react. I was more deeply in shock than I had ever been, so much so that it rendered movement impossible. I don't know which surprised me more, the fact that this girl was kissing me, or the fact that I was enjoying it.

She pulled away slightly and I felt a sudden curious emptiness. I couldn't believe it - I was actually disappointed. I had just enough time to see the faint freckles that were splayed across her cheeks and feel her warm breath tickle my skin before she pulled away completely and settled back into her seat.

"You just - you just kissed me!" I spluttered.

"Yes…?" she asked. She looked vaguely smug.

"Kissed me!" I repeated inarticulately. "Why?" I managed to choke out.

"For two reasons. Firstly I wanted to shut you up and I have to say it worked remarkably well, temporarily anyway. Secondly I thought it would freak you out and that seems to have worked too." she raised an eyebrow and gave me a mischievous smirk.

"Yeah. Worked very well." I agreed weakly. Better than she realised in fact. For some reason I had enjoyed that kiss. Which made my brain want to shut down. What was I thinking? Well clearly I wasn't; this was an annoying -possibly dangerous and magical - stalker, not someone to enjoy kissing.

I stumbled to my feet.

"I've got… I'm going to… things to do…I…bye." I stammered edging towards the door. She just laughed.

"And clearly it's brilliant for getting rid of you as well." I didn't - couldn't - reply and I basically ran for the exit.

As soon as I was outside I dematerialised. I didn't care that the street was crowded and anyone could have seen me. I just needed to get out of there, away from that situation that had spiraled so far out of my control. I materialised on some grassy cliff overlooking a turbulent sea - I had no idea where I was and I didn't care about knowing either. The wind was sharp and restless but otherwise the day was peaceful enough - blue skies, bright sun etc. I sat atop the cliff and stared down at the sea. I took several deep breaths hoping to calm myself.

She had kissed me! Actually kissed me.

_Kissed me. _

This was ridiculous. Things with Sarah-Jane had gone far too far and I'd finally seen sense and had enough. I wouldn't waste anymore of my time over that girl. I would resume my normal life. She was a mortal - I'd only have to work at forgetting her for fifty years or so and then she'd be dead. And no doubt if I actually tried I could forget her long before her death.

I transported myself back to Olympus to see if anyone wanted me to do anything. Doubtful. They weren't exactly shy about calling me, whatever the time, whenever they wanted a favour (a.k.a me to do something they didn't want to do) and I hadn't had any calls.

A shame really. I hated the work yet the unimaginable boredom when that work was taking away from me was far worse.

As I expected no one had need of me - unusual and something I should be worried about - so in an attempt to alleviate the inevitable boredom I made the mistake of agreeing to play cards with Apollo. Now that was an interesting afternoon.

* * *

Shewas staring down at the murky, churning waters below. I felt an intense feeling of absolute terror and in an instant I was behind her, wrapping my arms securely around her frail, slight body. She turned and wound her arms around my neck. She looked up at me and must have seen my expression of horror and fear because she laughed.

"I wasn't going to jump." she said softly. Seeing that her words failed to relax me she lifted her chin and kissed me softly. I began to relax into it and as I did she pulled away. I'm fairly sure I pouted like a love sick teenager and she laughed at me. I didn't mind though - I loved her laugh, the sound of it, the way it made her eyes sparkle, everything about it.

She pulled away from me and walked a little way away from the crumbling cliff edge. I felt a sudden pain, the pain of being apart. She was a few feet away and I _missed _her. She sat down in the grass and dragged her fingers through her hair which was blowing around her face in the breeze.

"Are you coming?" she demanded playfully. I walked towards her feeling the tug at my heart lessen as I got closer to her. I sat down next to her and pulled her into my arms. She didn't protest and laid her head against my chest.

"I've missed you." I heard myself murmur. She looked up at me through her lashes.

"We've barely been apart." she commented. "but I've missed you too Hermes." I smiled and leaned down to kiss her.

I woke and this time it took me slightly longer to adjust to reality.

"What is with all these dreams?" I demanded to my empty room.

"Dreams are wonderful tools." a voice replied. Okay a not-so-empty room then. "They can show you what was, what is and even what could be."

"Get out of my sight Lachesis!" I growled to the stooped figure.

"Not until you've listened to me."

"After the destiny you gave Luke? I'm not listening to anything you have to say."

"You will listen Hermes. I have come to deliver a warning." How original…

"I'm _not _listening. It's not like I can change what you've decided is it?" I snarled.

"She will either cause you to rise to the highest you've ever been or fall further than you've ever fallen. And whether you rise or fall is up to you; your actions are what will choose the outcome, not us. We have no control over this particular situation." I was almost interested.

"Who are you taking about?" I asked. I had a suspicion, of course, but I wanted confirmation.

"You know of whom I speak."

"Okay, so maybe I do." I snapped childishly, "But what if I choose not to see her again?"

"You could." she replied in an annoying mystical voice, "Of course you could."

"So, what, you send me a dream to try and convince me to choose her? Why? What's so special about her? And what do you mean you have no control over the situation. You're the _Fates_." I demanded furiously. How dare Lachesis try to confuse me even further by sending that dream. Did she not care that I had enough on my mind? Stupid question, of course she didn't.

"Your questions are linked. The reason we have no control over the situation is the answer to your question about her… individuality, shall we say."

"And let me guess, you're not going to tell me about her '_individuality'_"

"It's for her to tell." she started to melt away from sight and I couldn't help but feel glad.

"Oh and Hermes?" she became solid again and I resisted the urge to throw something at her. It's better not to piss off the fates.

"What is it now?" I snapped. I didn't think I could take any more news, good or bad.

"That dream wasn't sent by us. Your head may want to run away but your heart has other ideas. Choose wisely."

Great. Just _great_.


	9. Chapter IX

~ _Her best days will be some of my worst _~

The Script - Breakeven

* * *

2nd December

Hermes

In my dream she'd called me Hermes. So part of me wanted to tell her who I really was? I knew it was a bad idea; experience taught me as much. Mortals just couldn't handle it, it destroyed them. And I couldn't let that happen to her. No matter what happened, no matter which way I chose, I would not tell her. I wouldn't wish the outcome on anyone. Not even stalkers.

The day was torturous. Father made me dash around the country with messages for all manner of immortals. Every flash of red hair I saw on my travels I thought was her, and every time I had to fight to keep my heart from gaining control. I would not fall like this. But I began to get this sense that maybe it was too late. Maybe I'd already fallen.

I cursed Lachesis; had she not interfered I would have put the enjoyment of the kiss down to my fragile psyche due to that terrible dream I'd had or some other excuse and continued my immortal life in ignorance of my hearts desires. I could see why they say ignorance is bliss; the knowledge of what I truly wanted was terrible and I wished to be ignorant again.

I wouldn't allow myself to get close to someone again. It hadn't exactly worked out too brilliantly the last time. I shuddered, freezing on the spot and squeezing my eyes shut as the true horror of Lachesis's words finally hit me. The chance I could fall further than that? What kind of misery would that be? No, I didn't even want to think about it. I didn't want to face that. And yet now I knew what I wanted it would be impossible to ignore. What I wanted I would get; that's who I am and what I do, have done, will always do.

I gasped and opened my eyes. I'd materialised to my room without even realising it; I must be upset. I tossed the remainder of the mail onto my floor and took three shaky steps towards a chair and collapsed into it.

* * *

Sarah-Jane

I was ashamed to say that my first thought as I opened the door was that if all pizza delivery guys looked like this I should start ordering pizza more often. He gave me the most beautiful smile I had ever seen as he passed over the box and I very nearly melted.

I counted out the money in a daydream and handed it over. He smiled again and this time I truly did melt. He turned to leave and I was left staring after him as I hadn't the presence of mind to shut the door or to notice the pizza that was going cold in my hand.

Suddenly he turned and walked back up towards me.

"Look, I don't normally do this-" he said and then winced, "And this isn't a pick up line no matter how much it sounds like it's going to turn into one, um -" he blushed and broke off awkwardly. I laughed and he looked up hopefully.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Sarah-Jane." I replied feeling my cheeks heat up.

"Well Sarah-Jane, I was wondering if, maybe, I could, well, have your number. You know, if you don't mind and I haven't put you off by screwing up something as simple as asking for your number." I laughed again.

"Pen? Paper?" I asked, a little bluntly but I was too stunned to form proper sentences. GET A GRIP SARAH! I thought crossly. He handed me both and I scribbled my number down, my hands actually shaking as I did so. I handed him back my number and he looked it over grinning. I was surprised I wasn't a puddle on the floor by now.

"And this is your number?" he asked scanning it, "Not the number for the local pizza place or something?" I laughed again - it was so easy to in his presence.

"That's definitely my number." I confirmed.

"Great, well, see you soon. I've got to go deliver pizza." I nodded sagely.

"I'm got to go eat pizza." I said gesturing to the box in my hand and he laughed. He had a lovely laugh.

"Bye Sarah-Jane," he murmured and turned and walked away leaving me to go to pieces. Somehow I managed to get the door shut and then I fell against it dreamily. Someone likes me. A sweet somebody. A gorgeous somebody. A somebody who wasn't a stalker and insane. It was wonderful.

Seriously, wasn't this the sort of thing that only happened in stories? Or maybe my life would be a fairytale from now on. Heaven knows I deserved a easy ride, surely by now I'd had enough bad things happen to me for one lifetime? Without a conscious transition, the soppy hopeless romantic part of me took over and I began planning my wedding. I'd just got to deciding on the colour of the flowers - pink or white? - when someone screamed my name jolting me from my reverie.

"What are you doing out there Sarah? We're starving in here!" John's voice.

"Yeah quit flirting with the pizza guy and bring that pizza in here!" Olive teased. I laughed at the irony of her comment and danced into the living room and placed the pizza on the coffee table.

"What were you doing?" asked Olive as she opened up the box, letting the delicious and unmistakable smell of pizza waft into the room.

"Yeah, why are you so happy?" John asked suspiciously. I batted my eyelashes at him playfully and dropped to the floor with a bump.

"What? Can't one be happy?" I asked.

"You're not happy, Sarah, you're delirious." I just gave him a sweet smile.

"You never answered." Olive pointed out. "What were you doing?"

"Flirting with the pizza guy." I replied happily. I sighed and flopped back onto my back and stared at the beautiful ceiling.

"How do you know he's not another psychopathic stalker like that Harry guy?" asked John.

"I don't just attract psychopaths John." I pointed out.

"Of course you don't Sarah." John said soothingly and unconvincingly "Just be careful." He added.

"Always am." I replied cheerfully.

* * *

Hermes

I'm not sure how long I sat in that chair. It felt like hours but could have easily been minutes. It's hard to keep track of time when your thoughts are circling.

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself but it was no use. I ran a trembling hand through my hair weakly. I needed sleep, I felt bone achingly tired. And yet I knew that even if I could somehow make it over to my bed without collapsing I would never be able to fall asleep. Not when my conscious mind was plagued with thoughts of Sarah-Jane. Not when I was struggling to contend with the increasing guilt at forgetting May and everything she once meant to me so quickly and easily. Not when thoughts of how badly I'd messed up the lives of those I cared about the last time I made the mistake of becoming too involved were racing round my head.

I closed my eyes and tried very unsuccessfully to block everything out.

What could Lachesis mean? What made Sarah-Jane so special? How was I supposed to know how to take control of the situation.

Stupid girl. Stupid compelling mortal.

It's not fair really. Apollo got through mortals like Dionysus got through cans of coke. And yet he always came out of relationships with a smile and without a scratch to his heart or ego. Why did the fates hate me? What did I do to deserve this sort of bad luck?

"Hermes?" Apollo's voice.

"Get lost." I growled. I didn't want to speak to him. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it wasn't Apollo's fault that I kept getting the short straw when it came to relationships but the larger part of my mind didn't care.

"You're shaking." He commented sounding concerned.

"Apollo get out of my sight." I snapped, although the forcefulness of my command was slightly ruined by the fact my voice was trembling. There was a silence. I sensed he was still there but his silence was the next best thing to him leaving so I let it be.

"What have I done?" he demanded suddenly, "Because I can't remember doing anything to upset you. I'm just worried about you, Hermes. You're a mess. Have you seen yourself? You look like you could do with a decades sleep."

"I feel like I could do with a decades sleep." I murmured. My head felt heavy as though my thoughts were literally dragging me down.

"Is this to do with that mortal girl who you were stalking?" he asked. His word opened a floodgate and another tidal wave of emotion ran through me. I felt my breathing become sharp and ragged as I struggled to deal with all the competing thoughts and feelings, not one of them pleasant, that struggled for dominance in my head.

"Calm down!" Apollo said, sounding startled, as I struggled to regulate my shallow rapid breathing "Look I'm sorry I mentioned okay?"

I hardly heard him. Much to my consternation, my eyes were now prickling with tears and I was trembling worse than ever. What if I did end up falling? How could that possibly feel worse than this? Could anything feel worse than this? I hated not knowing. As much as I had despised Luke's destiny at least I could prepare myself somewhat for it (although in truth nothing I did really helped to prepare myself for how much his betrayal and later his death hurt)

I felt Apollo's hand on my arm and my breathing slowly returned to normal and I gradually stopped shaking.

"Thanks." I whispered. He nodded quickly, his eyes full of concern.

"You can't go on like this." He said.

"I know." I murmured. But I didn't know what else I could do.


	10. Timeline

STUPIDLY LONG AUTHOR'S NOTE THE SECOND (and hopefully the last)

Right I think I've sorted myself out and I only have to retcon two chapters. Basically (and I have literally no idea how I've managed to do this) I started writing this story assuming Sarah's life followed one storyline but recently I have been writing it following another storyline. Anyway the upshot is I have retconned two chapters and delted them from this fic.

Okay so I know I promised you a chapter forever ago but it's taken me this long to sort this story out and figure out what needs to change to make sure it's going where I need it to go. So this chapter is a summary of what's happened so far just to make sure everyone's on the same page and to make it obvious what's happened so far. I will then rewrite chapter twelve and leave myself a memo never to post a chapter when I am at the beginning of a migraine again no matter how keen I am to start writing again. Then it will be regular updates every Thursday from now on.

TIMELINE

Sarah attends university/college (still don't really understand the American Higher Education system even though an American friend tried to explain it to me. Can anyone explain it to me? Please message me if you can) in some part of America that is far enough away from New York that you definitely couldn't get there in under four hours. I would specify a place but if I did I would have to find a real university for Sarah to attend because I'm fussy like that and for that I think I need a better understanding of how American Universities actually work. She takes literature (majors in literature? Again can someone please explain American Universities to me) if anyone is interested.

One of her friends had a bad experience with one of the professors so Sarah took it upon herself to investigate. She meets Hermes who has been dragged to a party at this university by Apollo who thinks Hermes needs to stop sulking/despairing over Luke's death.

Then a little while later Hermes accidently turns up at Sarah's door while he was trying to look for a girl called Leanne (for reasons that will become apparent later. But don't get too excited as it's not that interesting or particularly big a plot point) Incidentally Sarah's friend is fine (Also will come up later but just reassuring everyone I hadn't forgotten about her)

Sarah goes to a street festival party type thing. She sees a Greek mythical monster, and sees Harry again and is introduced to Apollo.

There is a council on Olympus. Hermes remembers seeing the girl in a marketplace a long time ago and wonders how as he knows she is not an immortal.

Hermes takes a walk in New York and sees Sarah. Then while he is in a coffee shop at Sarah's university less than two hours later he sees Sarah there and wonders what she is doing there. There is a slight confrontation between Sarah, John and Hermes which results in Hermes apologising to Sarah for his erratic behaviour and for appearing to stalk her and Sarah kisses him to shut him up and to psych him out.

Hermes then realises that he may be slightly too interested and invested in Sarah. The knowledge that he likes her is cemented by a dream he has and a conversation he has with one of the fates who tells him that the fates cannot see Sarah's future. He is warned that Sarah could be his downfall (or she could make him happy again but he chooses to focus on the negative)

Not wanting another May scenario he freaks out a little and goes into depressed mode. Meanwhile Sarah is happily getting on with her life and gets a cute pizza delivery guy's number.

Then it's the summer holidays and Sarah's trying to get a flight back home but her booking went wrong for some reason and the only flights available are ones leaving New York. So she goes to New York for a few days for some more sightseeing but ends up getting kidnapped. And that brings us to the next chapter which will be coming to you all very soon.

Thanks for your patience. You are all wonderful people.

Thanks for reading

Xxx

(Also GazmRules I have not forgotten about your extra chapter. I WILL do it, hopefully by next week)

Tell you what anyone else who reviews this week can have the secret oneshot chapter that I promised I'd write ages ago. Partly to bribe you all into reviewing and partly because now it's even more official and I have to do it even thought my broken toe is making me feel like I want to throw up. Seriously it's only a little toe why does it hurt so much?

See you next Thursday guys.

xxx


	11. Chapter X

Summer. A time I used to associate with picnics, beaches, festivals and BBQs. Now it just meant one thing: exams. No doubt all the good little boys and girls (like Olive and John) were super prepared with colour coded flashcards and neat lecture notes but organisational skills are just one of the key skills I lack (with some of the others being patience, motivation and diligence) and all I had was a disorganised mound of scrappy lecture notes, most of which had a higher percentage of doodles than actual content.

When I wasn't rapidly cycling through the notes as though I could somehow learn what was written on the paper through some odd form of osmosis, I was staring at textbooks, highlighter poised (mainly because I had just found my highlighters in my drawer and they looked all shiny and new in their packaging and I just had to use them for something) oscillating between hope (I still had time left to revise, my exam isn't until tomorrow) and despair (MY EXAM IS TOMORROW AND I HAVEN'T REVISED! THIS IS ALL THE INTERNET'S FAULT ! WHY WAS I LOOKING AT YOUTUBE VIDEOS OF GOATS THAT SING LIKE USHER INSTEAD OF REVISING?!)

So that was how I spent my early summer. I'd not revise, the panic and start revising manically, then I'd take the exam, then I'd be relieved that I'd finished the exam, then I'd convince myself that I needed a day to relax, which would somehow lead to several days of relaxing. And then the cycle would start over.

Not only did I have my complete lack of motivation until it was basically too late to contend with, I also had to spend (what felt like) every waking hour on the phone to a certain airline who had somehow managed to mess up my booking and were now telling me there was basically no way they could get me home without flying me via Australia. Several hours of hold music later and they eventually offered me a flight to New York and then a couple of days later a flight from New York to London.

So I finished my exams which was such a relief I cannot tell you, packed up my stuff and headed out to New York. It was a couple of days before my flight for London so I thought I'd do a little shopping. It was perfect for a while; the sun was shining, there were blue skies and I had several shopping bags on my arms. And then I had to stop for coffee.

Really in retrospect I didn't need a coffee. I could have done without one, gone on with shopping. I mean there's every chance he would have found me wherever I was but it was easier to blame it on the coffee. It trivialised it all, made it seem like less of a big deal. And anyway it would be a good opener when I came to tell Olive the story: it all started with a cup of coffee and then suddenly I was kidnapped and presumably knocked out because I don't remember being taken to the empty white room where I was forced to stay for an indeterminate amount of time with no idea what was happening or why and if I'd ever get out –

Okay I was panicking a little. I took a sip of my Frappuccino in an attempt to calm myself. It was all watery from all the melted ice and not particularly calming. I placed the half empty cup on the floor delicately, carefully thinking the simple action over carefully to avoid thinking of anything else. I stood up straight again, focusing on moving each muscle, on executing the simple move. That seemed to help if only a little. I could still feel the panic bubbling inside of me threatening to force upwards and completely overwhelm me, but, for now, I had a lid on it. For now I was _just_ about capable of rational thought.

Right so let's focus on where I was. There was usually an air vent to crawl through or something right? A big part of wanted to run round the room in a blind panic searching for an air vent or a secret door but I took a deep breath and managed to rein the panic back in again. I had to be calculated and logical. I took a slow step forward running my hand along the wall hoping to find a secret join. In all honesty I wasn't exactly hopeful. This room took minimalism to the extreme. The walls were painted white, the floor was white marble, the celling was heavily sculptured and perfectly white. The only things marring this room's perfect whiteness were me (grey top, red hair, slim green jeans) and my half full cup of coffee.

I took another slow step forward, continuing my search for anything that could get me out of here. There were no doors or windows visible but there had to be a door somewhere, I mean how else would I have been brought in here? All I had to do was find the lever or the button or the switch or whatever that would open up a section of the wall and then –

And then what? What would I do then?

No don't think about that, let's just take this one step at a time. With that I took another small step forward concentrating hard on the plain wall. I heard a slight noise behind me, that was thunderous in the silence that had dominated the room. I whipped round to see what was happening.

"Sarah?" a very familiar figure asked.

* * *

_Short chapter I know, I'm very sorry. Will you forgive me if I tell you it's because I'm feeling very very ill right now? But I updated anyway because it's a Thursday._

_Will you also forgive me for not getting back to the reviewers and those who have messaged me? Just shows you how the best laid plans of mice and men can fall through huh. I was half way through the chapter for the reviewers and the messagers as well. I'll get back to you all as soon as I feel capable of staring at a very bright computer screen without feeling like I'm going to faint and/or throw up._

_Also my laptop has to go back for repairs (again) at some point, only I'm not sure when. If you don't hear from me next week, or at any point, assume that's what has happened. I can't imagine they'll ever have it for longer than a week though so I'll probably only miss one Thursday updating._

_Thanks for reading_

_xxx_


	12. Chapter XI

"You!" I exclaimed. The 'you' in question was the blonde haired, blue eyed, tanned younger brother of my stalker so I wasn't sure whether to feel slightly relived to see a familiar face or even more scared because he was related to Harry who at the very least a stalker and at the very worst a psychopathic stalker.

"Sarah." Golden hair said again, in acknowledgement this time. He took a step towards me and I took a very large step backwards.

"Where am I?" I blurted out. I'd intended to sound cool, calm and collected and all badass to try and trick him into thinking that I'd have something close to a chance if things came down to any sort of physical confrontation. Instead my voice was high, a little wobbly and just generally conveyed the impression that I was terrified.

"Hey," he said softly, taking another step forward with his palms raised in a 'I come in peace' gesture, "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Said the serial killer right before he sliced and diced a few people." I muttered unhappily, but some of the tension did leave me, not all of it by any means but enough that I didn't feel like I was about to shatter under the stress.

"Look I just want to talk." He said. He didn't move forward this time, instead he was treating me like I was a spooked animal about to bolt which was a little insulting and also a little stupid as where exactly would I run to?

"Fine." I said, making a conscious effort to sound as unaffected as possible, "Let's talk. We can start by talking about where I am and how I got here." I crossed my arms (partly to hide the way my hands were shaking) and glared sat him as though I wasn't prepared to take no for an answer. I wasn't sure how ferocious I looked, in all honestly it was probably more amusing than anything but I may as well try.

In response he lowered his hands and raised an eyebrow. He didn't seem to know how to react and when he next spoke he was hesitant as though he was thinking very carefully about the words he was saying.

"I brought you here." He eventually said softly. The gentle tone did nothing to mask the more sinister implication behind it and I took another step backwards.

"_You_ knocked me out?" I demanded a hysterical note creeping into my voice. Okay that should have been obvious from the beginning but I was holding onto a little hope that this almost stranger wasn't in any way dangerous but was here to rescue me.

"I had to!" he exclaimed quickly and then seemed to realise that that was an appalling defence and added in a rush, "It was self-defence! I tapped you on the shoulder to get your attention and you just hit me! So I knocked you out, I didn't mean to but it was an instinctive and fairly legitimate response to being attacked." He paused and added ruefully, " But I honestly didn't mean to hit you that hard so I'm sorry."

I frowned. I did vaguely recall now someone tapping my shoulder and I'd whirled round to see who it was. But I didn't hit him? I was thrown off balance though and sort of flailed around a bit. As it possible I'd hit him, probably likely but how could he mistake that for self-defence. I was torn between telling golden-hair-blue-eyes the truth so I could call him out for attacking me and letting him believe I was some kind of karate master.

In the end I chose not to tell him. Maybe if he thought I was a black belt he'd be less likely to slit my throat (I still wasn't entirely sold on the idea that he'd brought me here just to talk)

"So after knocking me out you thought the best thing to do would be to kidnap me and bring me here?" I asked. He shrugged; a casual carefree yet graceful gesture and I envied the ease with which he pulled it off. I made a mental note to practise shrugging in front of the mirror when (not if, _when_) I got home.

"Yeah." He said without a trace of sarcasm or irony. I took a second to process that.

"I'm Apollo." he said, while I was still trying to decide how to take the knowledge that he thought taking an unconscious person to an unknown place was a good idea.

"Apollo?" I repeated, slightly sceptically, "What's that like a codename?" he frowned but the right side of his mouth twitched like he was amused.

"No that's like my actual name." he replied.

"No one's called Apollo." I said, raising my eyebrows at him in what I hoped looked like a challenging manner. "And this is like Apollo like the God?" I asked.

"What if I told you I was the God?" he asked. He was smiling as he said it, his head tilted to the side like it was a joke. But something about the seriousness in his eyes as he asked the questions told me he was serious. Which he couldn't be. Because that was ridiculous.

Okay guys I am having a world of problems with my laptop at the moment. They fixed the first problem but created a different problem so it's got to go back again. I'm not sure when the next update will be. I'll try and borrow a laptop off of someone and update on Thursday, or my laptop may not be gone by then. It's all kind of up in the air at the moment.

Reviewers and messages: your reward chapter is done and I'll post it asap. Also I'll try and get back to any messages or reviews asap but this laptop is so temperamental at the moment that quite frankly it will be a miracle if I get this story posted. Let alone all the other stuff I've got to do.

Anyway thanks for reading.

xxx


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